Miss Colorado Runner-Up Loses Title Over Porno

Kristy Althaus was really, really close to being Colorado’s representative at the Miss USA teen pageant (barf, who gives a damn about that fucked up commodification of teen beauty anyways?) She didn’t win.

ANYWAYS, a little while later, Althaus acted in a hardcore porn video. I watched a bit of it. It was pretty hot! She’s really pretty! Well, Gawker put two and two together and now the Miss USA teen pageant website has been furiously deleting any mention, both text/video of Althaus’ achievements.

Here’s my burning question: who the hell cares?

It seems like the stuffy pageant organizers do, but I don’t understand why something that Althaus did after the pageant should retro-actively affect her standing as Miss Colorado runner up.

Do they honestly believe that Althaus is the first former Miss-Wherever to make post-pageant decisions that might not conform to their bullshit girl-next-door wholesome American sweetie pie image? REALLY?

For me, it comes down to a question of agency. Pageants already seem to instil really weird conservative values in people – if you want to play ball, you have to adhere to the image that they want to portray.

On the other hand, it seems that the Miss USA pageants don’t have an explicit set of moral rules that their contestants need to follow: which begs the question, if Althaus didn’t break any rules, why the hell is she getting punished?

All in all, if Althaus wanted to act in a porn, for whatever reason, then, good for her, mission accomplished. She even managed to look great while doing it!

To the Miss USA committee – lighten up. Althaus was of legal age to make decisions about acting in porn, she didn’t explicitly break any Miss USA guidelines or rules, and she didn’t harm anyone.

We had an interesting discussion on Reddit about this topic where a former pageant contestant gave her opinion and lent her support towards the removal of Miss Colorado from the pageant’s records.

Her argument was that pageant contestants are often seen as local role models and work with charities and kids all of the time, so it would reflect poorly to have them working in the adult industry. If someone is still actively participating in pageants, then I guess that argument makes sense, but if the adult video was made after the pageant was over, I don’t see the harm in it.